Noting that the deteriorating condition of many urban areas
has been accompanied by a 300% increase in the budget of the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 1980,
members of the African-American leadership group Project 21 say
HUD should be abolished and a new plan devised for the inner cities.
Furthermore, say Project 21 members, HUD's misuse of authority
to silence critics of its policies must end.

Project 21 members are in support of three proposed reforms
of current urban policies:

Abolish HUD and radically reform the nation's housing policies.
One legislative proposal that seeks to do this is "The Federal
Housing Reform and Local Empowerment Act" introduced on
August 11 by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS), and Senators
Spencer Abraham (R-MI) and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC). Besides abolishing
HUD, the Act would replace existing public housing and public
housing assistance with the state's housing plan or with a voucher
program administrated by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Act also consolidates HUD housing and development programs
into one Housing and Community Development Block Grant to be
given only to the most needy urban areas. Supporters of these
changes argue that while the number of HUD programs has grown
from 54 to over 200 since 1980, public housing problems have
gotten worse.

Create empowerment zones in economically distressed areas.
"The Enhanced Enterprise Zone Act of 1995" introduced
by Senators Spencer Abraham (R-MI) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)
would strengthen the incentives in enterprise zones by eliminating
the capital gains tax; allow for greater tax deductions for investing
in businesses; defray the cost of construction, expansion, and
renovation through a targeted tax credit; modify the regulatory
burden on business; provide incentives for homeownership; and
give low-income parents and their children financial assistance
to attend the public or private school of their choice.

End HUD's harassment of critics. Many local communities have
zoning ordinances that regulate how many unrelated people can
live in one home. HUD has sued some of these communities for
the right to place group homes (sometimes made up of recovering
substance abuse users) in the midst of these communities. In
addition, HUD has used federal government powers to investigate
and harass people in Berkeley, California and elsewhere who exercised
their civil right to oppose HUD's group home policies in their
neighborhoods. "The Fair Housing Act," introduced by
Senator Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), would overturn a Supreme Court
ruling allowing HUD to violate the local ordinance while also
ending HUD investigations of critics of its housing policies.

"The Department of Housing and Urban Development stands
as a testament to the failed social engineering of the 1960s.
The worst slums in America are run by HUD, giving that agency
the dubious distinction of being the #1 slum lord in America.
At its worst, public housing under HUD has served as an incubator
for social pathologies which have been unleashed on our society
hurting the very ones such programs are suppose to help,"
argues Project 21 Member Zenoa Henderson, Vice President of California's
Cerritos Republican Club.

Project 21's Doug Laurance, a Republican Party political activist
in Sacramento, says, "I support the abolition of the Department
of Housing and Urban Development because something must be done
to curtail the runaway bureaucracy and duplication of services
in our overblown government. Big government is simply a waste
of money. What HUD can do right should be transferred to another
agency thereby saving taxpayer dollars. The tax dollars saved
from restructuring HUD can be used far more productively in the
private sector."

Project 21 advisor and TV talk show producer Amos Young of
Montclair, California, says, "With its long history of waste,
fraud and abuse, at a minimum, HUD programs should be streamlined.
HUD should be reevaluated on a cost-benefit basis, not according
to its symbolic value as a stalwart to aid urban America (which
it really has not done very well over the past three decades).
The bottom line is simple: HUD must go!"